Humans Hold the Key to Collaboration No Matter How Good the Software Tools

The universal working assumption is that productivity depends on collaboration, but there’s no agreement on what’s the best way to achieve it. While the market for digital tools, platforms, teleconferencing and software to facilitate collaboration is worth nearly $20 billion, technology alone isn’t the answer. In the end, it’s about the humans, not the machines.

For one, the understanding of teamwork predates the widespread use of office technology. Bruce Tuckman and Mary Jensen wrote a model of group development back in 1977. Their five-stage “forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning” process still stands as key to designing the iterative process of collaboration. For instance, the “norming” phase is when a group gets into the teeth of a project and learns to trust each other and assign roles, while “performing” relies on interdependence. In a testament to the endurance of their principles, Slack, one of the highest performing collaboration software providers, cited them in a 2019 blog post.